The numero uno position of the IPL among marketing platforms is indisputable and every year, before the series kick-off, marketing heads at most prominent brands try to justify to their bosses why they should or should not join the bandwagon.

However, there are only a few who have aced the game of building the brand during the annual cricket extravaganza, and the leader is Mukesh Ambani-owned telecom player, Jio.

For the second straight year, Jio has remained the most recalled brand as per IPL Brand Effectiveness Study by Kantar Analytics and media agency network GroupM. The report, based on mobile surveys conducted across 10 metro cities, concluded that Jio, Vivo and Paytm have been the top three brands noticed this year using a variety of sponsorship strategies.

“Jio was once again the top recalled IPL brand this year,” said Irvinder Kaur, managing partner at mConsult. “Jio used a smart combination of cricket and Bollywood. It roped in Deepika Padukone, in addition to custom promos with every team, which resonated across all regions.”

Jio, apart from being co-presenting sponsor on Star Sports, also signed sponsorship deal with all the eight franchises this year.

Interestingly, while 63% of respondets recalled Vivo as the main sponsor of IPL during the first week of the tournament, it lost out to Paytm and Jio, which were present on multiple platforms.

Paytm, after the first three waves, was the second most recalled brand.

“Paytm as a first time central sponsor, performed brilliantly aided by dominant exposure on umpire clothing, and during decision reviews,” Kaur added.

Paytm, which spent approximately 10-15% of its entire marketing budget only on IPL, has been associated with the BCCI as the title sponsor for Indian cricket since 2015, which Jaskaran Kapany, VPmarketing at Paytm, said has worked very well at various levels.

On the IPL branding opportunity, Kapany said that the company was very clear that any association it makes should be unique, uncluttered and innovative. “To this extent, our umpire branding, QR code sight screen branding, umpire reviews etc have worked very well.”

In addition to being present through on-ground association, PayTM also took around 9-10 spots per match on Star Sports network. “Cricket will continue to be a significant part of our marketing spends.”

Surprisingly, Coca-Cola, which spent over Rs. 100 crore to take co-presenting sponsorship on Star Sports, did not feature even among the top 15 brands in the report, while Amazon, Airtel and Vodafone, which have been sponsors of IPL for many years earlier, were among the top recalled brands.

“Coca-Cola parked all its money on sponsorship and didn’t do anything on social, while Amazon, Airtel and Vodafone decided not to take sponsorships, but being sponsors over the year had a spillover effect,” Kaur added.

IPL is also a darling of advertisers because it delivers constant viewership every single day, for 50 straight days.